


Paper Hearts

by fourteenlines



Category: Farscape
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:09:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22265383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourteenlines/pseuds/fourteenlines
Summary: The day they were assigned to the same company, he made her laugh.
Kudos: 2





	Paper Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 5/20/2004 to Farscape Friday. For the X-Files titles challenge.

She wasn't some young cadet fresh from primary training, barely able to reign in the rush of new chemicals racing through her system. She wasn't a conscript either, mind polluted with needless emotions and the primordial customs of some backwater planet. She was a Sun, and could trace the faithful record of her foremothers' service as far back as the beginnings of High Command itself. She was a warrior. She was a pilot. She was a Peacekeeper, and she served their causes proudly.

Perhaps too proudly. If she had been less passionate about her service, perhaps she would not have recognized the emotion of love when she experienced it.

He had strangely fine features, a long, thin nose and a crop of unruly dark hair. He had a wicked smile, lips twisting sideways and eyes glinting, for just a moment, with mischief.

The day they were assigned to the same company, he made her laugh. She laughed so rarely, and then he flashed her that smile, and she knew then that she was going to frell him as soon as duty allowed.

That proved to be longer than she anticipated. An arn later the call to battlestations sounded; they spent the night huddled in a ditch with three other commandos, sharing one set of night-vision goggles between them. They waited until first light gave them opportunity for counterattack, and when they did, they did it well. The easy synchronicity they felt working together caused her to respect him.

The next day, when they were finally back aboard the command carrier, he caught her coming out of the showers and hauled her back to his quarters. She didn't ask how he'd persuaded his bunkmates to disappear for an entire sleep-cycle.

It was against regulations to spend the sleep-cycle with a recreation partner, but Xhalax justified it to herself by reasoning that they hadn't actually been _sleeping_. Slowly, what began as a small thing became a torrent of similar justifications, of unstoppable and inexcusable indulgence.

By the time she realized what she was feeling, she couldn't imagine giving it up for anything.


End file.
